An open architecture corporate electronic publishing platform

Corporate Electronic Publishing (CEP) encompasses more than the primitive capabilities of desktop publishing systems. It also includes networking and, in its optimal form, provides a platform for addressing a wide-ranging set of corporate documentation requirements. At AT&T Bell Laboratories we have evolved a platform for CEP consisting of AT&T's UNIX® operating system, the Datakit® virtual circuit switch, the Documenter's Workbench® and Graphics Workbench software, and the Adobe System, Inc. PostScript™ page description language. We cite real-life examples in which authors and printing facilities at geographically dispersed locations participated in cooperative efforts using the platform. We describe new work in progress that builds on this platform and addresses needs in illustration, photographic reproduction and plotting.